Article Review :: CIFOR Post :: 5 Facts You May forgotten about Forests

DID YOU KNOW, every year there is a lost of over 60,000 square kilometers of forest  (size of Ireland) world wide due to 

Mining, 

Agriculture, 

pasture, 

and other non forest uses, or degraded by unsustainable,

 Illegal logging and 

other Poor Land Use Practices?

And about 1.6 billion people that depends on the forest for livelihoods are displace or marginalize by these changes on their lands (or forest they were depending on) ?

Was reading an article in CIFOR blog, listing 5 facts humans may forget about how important forest is to human being livelihoods today :

Fact # 1 :  If people in Congo Basin farmed beef instead of hunting wildlife, roughly 10 % of the forest cover (in the world I presume) would be lost.

In rural areas of the Congo Basin many communities depend on wild meat hunted in forests for up to 80% of the fat and protein in their diets. But while overharvesting means the practise is becoming increasingly unsustainable, an outright ban on hunting isn’t the solution either, as rural people have very few alternative ways to get essential protein and will continue to hunt illegally.

 Replacing the six million tonnes of bushmeat consumed each year in theCongoBasin with beef, for example, would have environmentally catastrophic consequences.

“Six million tonnes is equivalent to the amount of beef produced in Brazil, which people estimate has been responsible for 60 to 70 percent of the deforestation in the Amazon basin,” said Robert Nasi, a scientist with the Centre for International Forestry Research(CIFOR).
“So we are talking about 20 or 25 million hectares of forest in the Congo Basin wiped out to put cattle – because cattle cannot live in the forest, they need pasture.”
One solution would be to ban hunting of vulnerable species – the gorillas and elephants – while allowing people to hunt more resilient species, like duikers (small antelopes) and porcupines.

Fact # 2 :  Forest supply about 75 % of usable water in the world

Forested catchments enhance the water supplies needed by rural and urban populations by controlling water yield, peak flows, low flows, sediment levels, water chemistry and water quality.

Though demand for water continues to rise, remaining forest lands are disappearing and this has been blamed for everything from flooding to aridity and for catastrophic reductions of water quality. Loss of forests will also have negative impacts on the essential hydrological services and safety net functions forests provide to the livelihoods of local communities.

Fact # 3 : More than a quarter of modern medicines, worth an estimated US$ 108 billion a year originate from tropical forest plants.

Many of the drugs sold in pharmacies today are synthetic modifications or copies of the naturally obtained substances. Less than one percent of the plants in the world’s tropical rainforests have even been tested for their medicinal properties – so who knows how many live life-saving drugs and new medicines have yet to be discovered, and sadly, how many have already been lost due to deforestation.

It seems plants have also adapted to making medicinal chemicals for their own protection. A few years ago, scientists found plants in a forest produce significant amounts of an aspirin-like chemical when placed under extreme stress.

Fact # 4 : In some parts of Africa, wood fuels account for almost 90% of primary energy consumption

Fact # 5 :  Converting one hectare of peat swamp forest can generate up to 70 tons of carbon emission over the next 25 years. 

I would like to make a statement : not all palm oil plantations established in Malaysia and Indonesia are converted on a peat swamp or forest land use area. There are standards and criteria's to meet before an area is converted to palm oil. Silly to slap the offenses of illegal operators ramping the peat swamps on to the overall oil palm industries in both Malaysia and Indonesia, that is part of the major drive to the countries economy development! 

I would prefer if they had stress only that peat swamp is crucial to be protected, for deforesting it would have an impact of carbon emission world wide, rather than relating to Malaysia and Indonesia oil palm industries like it is the major cause of loss (unless proven otherwise!).